Monthly Archives: January 2020

FIRE.100 I’m 20% older?

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At a retirement retreat a little while ago I had the realization that I’ve always been at least 20% older than myself…than my actual age.

Let me explain.  I tend to think differently than my peers.  I tend to get along with people older than me.  I tend to get into more interesting discussions with people older than I am.  It’s just the different way I think.

Looking back at some points in my life, I see a consistent pattern:

  • When I was 12 years old, I was in charge of my Little League game.  No, I wasn’t the star player on the team.  When I was 12, I was actually an umpire for the local Little League.  I umpired two games per night Monday, Wednesday and Friday, all summer long. 

As usual for me, it started so simply and naturally.  Because my birthday was before the age cutoff, I wasn’t able to play in the 12-and-under league with my classmates because I turned 13 before the end of the season date.

I didn’t like the higher league team I was assigned to, so I hung out with my friends in little league.  One game they needed an umpire—I knew the rules and I was in.  I just kept showing up and getting assigned to games.  It didn’t matter to me that you had to be 16 years old to umpire, I just kept my mouth shut and kept working.

  • 12-year-old home education.  This is when my dad started teaching me about bonds and interest rate yields.  He taught me about holding to maturity and how excellent 12% interest rates were at the time.  He taught me the strange concept of how the “100 price” was strangely based on $1,000 units.
  • At 21 years old I started teaching at my University.  I was a junior in the Business College but had found a part-time job as a computer technician for a different part of the University the year earlier.  Being a computer technician was a dream job with great work, flexible hours, and the pay was more than twice what I earned as a “student worker” previously. 

So one day one of the teachers had a nervous breakdown and couldn’t finish her classes so I was asked to finish the rest of the semester for her Intro to PC class.  I was happy to help and the next semester I got my very own classes.  I ended up teaching 5 years as I finished undergrad and completed my Master’s program at night.  (Who has a 21-year-old teacher in college, not an assistant, but it was MY class)  I was even able to develop my own troubleshooting class and an early internet class.

  • The next major interesting milestone was at 40 I started hanging with the retirees at a summer retirement community.  I was able to work my corporate job remotely so I went to hang out at my mom’s home 3 hours away and as long as the internet was live, I was good.  I did computer presentations each month and made dozens and dozens of new friends.  They were great and living an awesome retired life.

I joined the ranks of being “retired” after leaving my corporate job a few years later at 43.  Since then I’ve volunteered to teach technology seminars at the local Retirement Activity Center as well as teach at Osher Lifelong Learning for the University.

So looking back I realize that deep down I’ve always been 50, but I just hadn’t accumulated the years.  Maybe it was the way I was raised.  Maybe it was being an only child and the independence of youth.  Maybe it was the teachings that “you can’t beat the system” which forced me to learn to optimize the system to lessen problems.  Maybe it was a combination of many things.  Either way, I feel pretty much the same as always.  –Thinking about that feels kind of strange.

So the way I see it, I am now reaching my brain age.  My years and body have caught up with my mental thinking (I use the word “mental” because I know I’m strange).  Maybe in the future, I’ll eventually be older than I feel.  I’ve rarely had those “I don’t feel this old” moments.

The comment I guess I’ve heard and wish to adopt is “I’ve always been 50, I’m just now growing into the suit.”  [Note: I’ve never worn, nor owned a suit—hell, I hardly wear socks because of my Sanuk’s]

Sometimes I think I’m 55+.   Like I belong in a 55+ community, wait, I have a home in an “age qualified” community and I get along with my peer residents.  I’ve owned in the age-qualified community since I was 40, not 55+.  I’ve shared this “retirement living secret” earlier. 

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.

FIRE.099 Raving 20s

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So have you been thinking about how we’re leaping into a new year?  Do you have your list of New Year’s Resolutions?  Or maybe you have been planning on just tackling some activities that have been awaiting progress or completion?  Nothing too grand, of course…

The good news is it’s a leap year— you get an entire extra day to use to tackle your efforts.

New Decade Resolution/Goals

One extra day is really not enough for me to feel the desire to kick into overdrive mode, but when I stopped and realized this year is the start to a new decade, I got pretty excited.  It’s quite rare to enter a new decade.  [stop here and think about your transitions into each new decade—or even just your physical location entering each decade] 

I’ve always thought about the 19 —”80s,” “90s,” “50’s,” etc.  But, in the 2000 to 2019 timeline, there wasn’t a nice plural description for the decade until now….the 20’s.  For some reason, I think that is super cool.  I’m definitely planning on trying to enjoy the Raving 20s.  We have a whole new decade to grasp the fullest of life.  A whole new decade for the greatness that living today allows.

It’s been said many times that the average American lives far greater than Royalty did only 100 years ago.  That’s quite profound.  We have so many amenities from fantastic home temperature control, unlimited food choices, convenient local transportation, fast and safe global transportation, advanced communications, and state-of-the-art medical care.  Ironically, in the future, our current conveniences will seem ancient and rudimentary. (That’s one reason I want to live a long healthy life…to see the future).

Non Visionaries

When I brought up my enlightened topic of being able to plan for the new decade at a local gathering, someone (a group leader) said: “let’s just think about next year.”  I was shocked and quickly realized that not everyone is able to set a long term goal and structure their small decisions (running just 1 minute can lead to running 1 hour, or more) toward that success target.

I know my skills are not very strategic.  I am far more comfortable with tactics.  I’m better at organizing actions to get to the goal, rather than imagining of future vision/goals.  So I’m suggesting thinking of next year (and its actions) as part of your plan for the decade that awaits you.  Plan a little longer/larger.

Big Plans Can Come True

I have aimed for a few long-term plans that luckily worked out well.  i.e. going to college, losing 100+ pounds in 100 weeks, creating a 7-year early retirement plan, and each of those plans required weekly— if not daily—actions to meet that long term goal I had set for myself.

Each of those three long-term goals tended to accelerate and snowball into a process of its own.  This acceleration was much like the compounding effect.  As progress occurs, it can build upon itself creating a multiplicative effect.

10x

I suggest multiplying your New Year’s goals by 10 (years) and see what happens.  There’s a reason people have written books on 10x-ing your goals!  While those books seem to be based on great stretch goals of 10x higher than you think you can achieve.  There is no reason to use this magical start of a new decade as the perfect time for you to start multiplying your everything.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice.